A part of an ATL (Ask the Lord) month is choosing where in the country you want to go. My team wanted to go to an island, and one team member found a place we could possibly volunteer on Tioman Island. There were no guarantees this volunteer experience would work out for our large group of 7, but we decided to take a leap of faith and go to the island anyway. We even found a place that said we could camp for free, so we decided to do that for the first day or two, until we were officially accepted or denied the volunteer work.
Our squad was dropped off at the border of Malaysia, and my team took a train to Kuala Lumpur (after waiting several hours in the station of course). We rested in KL for a day, and then we boarded a bus to Mersing. After staying for the night, we got on the ferry to go to Tioman Island…Salang to be more specific, because this was the closest stop to the campsite. Or so we thought.
We got off the ferry not knowing exactly where the campground was. Honestly, we weren’t 100% sure it even existed, because several people had never even heard of it. We dropped all of our stuff at a pavilion with the mission of figuring out what to do next. A man we had met on the ferry started talking with one of my teammates, asking about our plans. We discovered that the only way to get to the campground was by a boat, and these boat rides were not exactly in our budget. Plus, it kind of meant we were stuck unless we wanted to keep paying for a boat. Some people went off in search of other lodging we could afford. Others stayed back and continued talking with Deo, our new friend from the ferry, hoping he could be of some kind of assistance.
Deo was from another part of Malaysia, but he came to Tioman Island about once a month for a weekend. He came to rest and relax. His plan that weekend was to do just that. Yet, he was using precious rest time to sit with us and try to help us. He recommended we stay in the center of Salang, where we would not need to ride a boat to get places. Unfortunately, there was nowhere within our budget. He made some calls to some people he knew on another part of the island, trying to find a place for us to stay within our budget. He said a friend of his said we could camp at his hostel, and it would be within our budget! We would just have to take a boat to get there, which meant more money. Deo could have gone on his merry way, knowing he had offered us some assistance, but he didn’t. He called another friend to try to get us a cheaper price for the boat ride. Then, he waited with us for over an hour for his friend to call back. His help didn’t stop there either! He rode on the boat with us, introduced us to his friend at the hostel, and made sure we got settled. He continued to check on us that night and showed us a little of the island.
What a God-send this man was! He could have viewed us as incompetent foreigners and never given us the time of day. He could have offered us a little help and then moved on to his vacation. Yet, he spent almost a whole day giving us advice, calling people he knew to get us deals, and making sure we got where we needed to go. After the next morning, I never really saw him again, even though he was supposed to be on the island for a day or two more. I honestly think he might have been an angel sent by God to help us in our time of need. The thing I’m learning about ATL is that God provides just what you need when you need it. All we have to do is seek His guidance and trust in Him, and He will take care of the rest.
